Polystachya steudneri Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Polychaete Photo by © W Bachmann and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

EARLY

Common Name Steudner's Polystachya [German Orchid Enthusiast 1800's]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda,Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in deciduous woodlands and dryish scrub at elevations of 1250 to 2300 meters as a miniature to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with narrowly conical, yellow pseudobulbs carrying 3 to 4, not present at blooming, linear to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, obscurely unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms in the spring through early summer on a terminal erect, paniculate, 3.2 to 13.2" [3 to 22 cm] long, terete, shortly branched, densely many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate floral bracts.

Synonyms Dendrorkis steudneri (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya beccarii Martelli 1886; Polystachya ellenbeckiana Kraenzl. 1902

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968; Flora of Tropical East Africa Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 ; Field Guide to Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rassmusen 2004 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlatch. etal 2014 drawing good

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